Life After Lyme Disease

Parker Posey is questioning conventional medicine after the pills she was prescribed failed to cure her of Lyme disease.

The Best In Show star was forced to pull out of an off-Broadway play earlier this year (2009) to focus on battling her tick-borne illness.

Doctors had put Posey on a course of antibiotics but after that treatment failed to restore her health, she decided to try a holistic approach and treat her Lyme disease with supplements and a complete change in her diet. She felt so much better after her holistic treatment that she decided to lend her backing to a new documentary, Rethinking Cancer, about patients who seek out alternative methods of treatment.

She says, “As someone who dealt with Lyme disease recently, I had the opportunity to approach it both with conventional medicine (antibiotics) and homoeopathic remedies and supplements. The first round of antibiotics did not destroy all the bacteria and I made a decision not to take them anymore and instead approach it purely holistically – through the help of my homoeopathic doctor, who guided me with my diet and gave me the natural supplements to bring my body back to its vitality.
“It raises the questions: How can a natural approach to healing oneself be considered so unconventional? Why do we think we can’t play an active role in getting healthy? Why do we give ourselves away so easily to pharmaceuticals that deplete our system and confuse the natural healing process?”

New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have discovered that a protein found in the saliva of ticks helps protect mice from developing Lyme disease. The findings, published in the November 19th issue of Cell Host & Microbe, may spur the development of a new vaccine against infection from Lyme disease, which is spread through tick bites .

Traditionally, vaccines have directly targeted specific pathogens. This is the first time that antibodies against a protein in the saliva of a pathogen’s transmitting agent (in this case, the tick) have been shown to confer immunity when administered protectively as a vaccine.

The Lyme bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi is transmitted by ticks. When it moves through the tick, it is coated with a tick salivary protein known as Salp15. The Yale research team injected Salp15 into healthy mice and found that it significantly protected them from getting Lyme disease. When combined with outer surface proteins of B. burgdorferi , the protection was even greater.

Lead author Erol Fikrig, M.D. of Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute said, “The interaction between the Lyme disease agent and ticks is very complex, and the bacteria uses a tick salivary protein to facilitate infection of the mammalian host. By interfering with this important interaction, we can influence infection by the Lyme disease agent.”

Several years ago there was a Lyme vaccine on the market that utilized just the outer surface proteins of the bacteria. It was taken off the market in 2002, and to date no other antigen has been tested in phase III clinical trials.

The authors believe this new strategy of targeting the saliva – the “vector molecule” that a microbe requires to infect a host – may be applicable not just to Lyme disease but to other insect-borne pathogens that cause other human illnesses.

“We believe that it is likely that many arthropod-borne infection agents of medical importance use vector proteins as they move to the mammalian host,” Fikrig explained. “If so, then this paradigm, described with the Lyme disease agent, is likely to be applicable to these illnesses. Currently, we are working to determine if this strategy is likely to be important for West Nile virus infection, dengue fever, and malaria, among other diseases.”

Other researchers were Jianfeng Dai, Penghua Wang, Sarojini Adusumilli, Carmen J. Booth and Sukanya Narasimhan of Yale School of Medicine, and Juan Anguita of the University of Massachusetts. This work was support by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Contact: Helen Dodson , 203-436-3984

Source: Yale University

Using a powerful microscopic live imaging technique, a research team led by Dr. Justin Radolf, professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center, has discovered that how ticks transmit Lyme disease to humans is different than was previously thought. His research is published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation .

It has been known for some time now that Lyme disease is caused by the transmission of the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi from ticks to humans, but the transmission process has been difficult to study for a number of technical reasons.

Dr. Radolf and researchers Star Dunham-Ems and Melissa Caimano tried a novel approach at solving this mystery. They genetically modified a virulent strain of B. burgdorferi with a green fluorescent protein (GFP). “This bacterium glows and can be followed in the living state as it migrates through the tick to the mouse during feeding,” explains Radolf. “Then using a powerful microscopic technique called confocal microscopy, we discovered that the transmission process unfolds quite differently than previously believed.”

Spirochetes in culture are highly motile, and it is widely believed that during feeding, the spirochetes in the mid-gut rapidly move through the wall of the mid-gut. But Radolf and his team discovered that during much of the feeding period, the spirochetes do not move. They actually divide and surround the cells of the mid-gut lining or epithelium, forming tight networks. “We also found that the reason they don’t move is that the tick mid-gut secretes molecules that actually inhibit the motility of the spirochetes,” explains Radolf.

Eventually, spirochetes in the networks reach the base of the epithelium by completely surrounding the epithelial cells. At this point, they become motile, detach, and completely penetrate the mid-gut, although in very small numbers. These bacteria then swim to the salivary glands, which they penetrate en route to the mouse. “So rather than being entirely motility-driven, dissemination of spirochetes within ticks actually happens in two phases,” says Radolf, “which is something we didn’t know before.”

Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne infection in the United States with more than 25,000 new cases reported annually. “The improved understanding of the transmission process revealed by our study could lead to novel strategies for controlling the spread of Lyme disease,” says Radolf.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2009
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new Web page containing product information on certain skin-applied insect repellents. EPA’s goal is to provide the public with information on registered insect repellents and their effectiveness claims in a clear, consistent, and user-friendly format.

“EPA’s release of information on the effectiveness of insect repellents will help American consumers select the right product for their needs and protect themselves and their children from potentially devastating diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks, such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. “ This Web-based dissemination of information supports Administrator Jackson’s goals of transparency and public access and protecting children’s health.”

The new Web page contains two tables listing insect repellent products that are registered by the agency: those that control mosquitoes and ticks, and those that only control mosquitoes. This Web page compiles publicly available information on protection times based on product effectiveness data reviewed by the EPA, and presents it in a format that makes it easy for consumers to make informed risk management decisions to protect their health and that of their families and children. The Web page also contains information on vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and the West Nile virus , and the importance of personal protection measures.

The Web page can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/mosquitoes/insectrp.htm

Researchers from Michigan State University and five other schools want to determine why Lyme disease is more common in some areas invaded by ticks than others.

The four-year, $2.5 million study funded by The National Science Foundation is being led by fisheries and wildlife assistant professor Jean Tsao (SOW),  at the East Lansing school.

Tsao says she will analyze factors making Lyme disease more likely to be carried by ticks in northern states than those in the south. She says one goal of the study is to help health professionals manage the disease better.

Also participating are researchers from the universities of Tennessee , Rhode Island and Montreal; as well as Hofstra and Georgia Southern universities.

Canadian Lyme disease sufferers and their families are ticked off at how the federal government is dealing with the disease and are rallying across the country to bring attention to their plight.

They say the disease, transmitted through the bite of infected ticks, is not being properly diagnosed by Canadian doctors.

Lyme Action Group will present a petition to the province calling for better physician training, availability of treatment options, improved testing, mandatory screening of the blood supply and protection for Lyme-treating physicians against harassment from the College of Physicians Surgeons of Ontario.

The group states doctors are not being educated on the increasing prevalence of the disease in Canada.

Dr. Jozef Krop, a practitioner of environmental medicine, and Helke Ferrie, a medical/science author, will speak at the event.

Organizers hope to make a formal presentation of the petition to MPPs, to be subsequently read in the Legislature.

The Wall of Hope event begins Thursday at 10 a.m. on the south lawn of the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park.

For more information, contact LymeActionGroup@gmail.com or visit LymeActionGroup.blogspot.com

Received from the TickedOff group for distribution:

Here is the information for the upcoming hearing for HB 1148, filed by Representative Robert Hargraves, which will allow all Massachusetts physicians the ability to treat Lyme disease based on their own clinical judgment.

HB 1148 (pdf)

This post serves as an initial announcement, but will be updated during the coming week as we receive more information.

What: Public hearing on HB 1148 (Joint Committee on Public Health) Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Place: Boston State House Room A1
24 Beacon Street Boston, MA, 02108
Directions
Time: 10:00 a.m. (If you plan to attend, please try to arrive by 9:00 a.m.)

Note: We will be sharing the hearing day with other bills and our time will be limited. We must plan carefully in order to utilize the time that we are allowed to full advantage.

Members of the Lyme community are encouraged to participate in each of three ways:

1. Written Testimony NEED YOUR HELP WITH THIS ASAP – Details to follow
2. Attendance at the hearing
3. Participation at the rally on the State House steps on the day of the hearingWe will describe each of these opportunities in subsequent emails. We are trying to keep this information as simple and “user friendly” as possible. Please bear with us, as we strive to clarify and convey the relevant information.

We look forward to working together with you!

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that may help give Lyme disease its bite.

The findings suggest that the bacterial protein, which aids in transporting the metal manganese, is essential for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease to become virulent.

“We believe our findings provide a foundation for further defining metal homeostasis in this human pathogen and may lead to new strategies for thwarting Lyme disease,” said Dr. Michael Norgard , chairman of microbiology at UT Southwestern and senior author of a study now online and in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lyme disease, discovered in 1977, is the most prevalent tick-borne infection in the U.S. Borrelia burgdorfei , the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, lives in infected mammals and in the midgut of ticks. When an infected tick bites an animal or a human, the bacteria are transmitted to the new host. Infection causes fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, muscle and joint aches, and a characteristic “bull’s-eye” rash that surrounds the site of infection.

To establish infection, however, the bacterium also must acquire a number of essential nutrients, including metals like manganese from its mammalian and tick hosts. Until now, no metal transporter responsible for this acquisition had been identified in this bacterium.

In the current study, microbiologists examined whether bacteria genetically engineered to lack this manganese transporter, called BmtA, transmitted Lyme disease to ticks and mice. The bacterium lacking the transporter, Dr. Norgard said, grows a bit more slowly in the test tube but is not dramatically different from the normal version.

“When you try to grow it in a mouse, however, it can’t grow,” he said. “The fact that the bacterium without this particular manganese transporter can’t grow in a mouse raises important questions about what aspects of physiology and metabolism contribute to the pathogenicity of the organism.”

Lead author Dr. Zhiming Ouyang, postdoctoral researcher in microbiology at UT Southwestern, said another newly discovered characteristic about the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is that it doesn’t seem to require iron to function, something most other pathogens need to survive.

“Out of the thousands of bacteria known, the Lyme disease agent and only one or two other bacterial species do not require iron for growth,” Dr. Ouyang said. “That raises the question as to what other metal co-factors the Lyme disease bacterium depends on to carry out the work that iron does for all these other biological systems. Our research suggests that manganese is a really important one.”

The next step is to understand the exact mechanism of how manganese functions in the organism.

“I really think that there’s also something to the notion that manganese may regulate the expression of other virulence factors,” Dr. Norgard said. “It could be that manganese has more of an indirect effect, but more research is needed to determine what must happen for Borrelia burgdorfei to become virulent.”

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine collaborated on the study.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/